Blog Entry

Our latest project is a hand-built, custom 60″ dome brick wood-fired oven. You can find the new restaurant, Johnny’s Wood-Oven Pizzeria, in Chadd’s Ford just outside Philadelphia, PA. The photo below shows the completed oven. The oven exterior is a tile mosaic with a brick base finished by the owner.

The oven is the focal point of the new restaurant, directly behind the bar counter. The photo below shows the view directly through the front entrance.

Once the masonry block base and concrete hearth slab are complete the oven begins. The oven floor and walls are built on top of 4″ of load bearing, commercial grade insulation. The photo below shows the firebrick floor and walls underway. The first course of the form free dome construction has begun.

The dome is built entirely of high duty firebrick. Every brick is cut to achieve tight, long lasting joints. The dome is about halfway complete in the photo below.

The arched door opening in the dome is shown below.

Once the dome is complete, 4″ of commercial ceramic wool insulation covers the oven.

The insulation is covered with a rough stucco coat. The oven is now ready for any type of final facing.

The owner, John, finished the oven in a combination of brick, tile mosaic, and stucco. He’s working the new oven in the photo below.

One of the first hot fires rolls over the dome in the photo below. Notice how clean the oven ceiling is, indicating a hot clean fire burning in the oven.

One a the oven’s first pizzas after just a few seconds in the hot oven cooks on the firebrick floor in the photo below.